Forum: Who wants to be a millionaire? - Peter Moore wonders if a national lottery is a boon or a bungle

After years of discussion, Britain is about to launch a lottery. The Lottery Bill passed through Parliament this summer, with the Royal Assent expected imminently. The lottery will be launched in about 12 to 18 months' time. It is curious that neither the White Paper on the lottery, nor the bill itself, spells out how the lottery will operate.

Basically, there will be a lottery with tickets costing not more than £1 each. Originally, the annual turnover was expected to be £1.5 billion, but estimates from the Department of National Heritage, under whose aegis the lottery falls, raised the figure to £2 billion, while market researchers suggested that the turnover could be as high as £4.5 billion.

No breakdown of the cash raised has been announced but, in the debate in the House of Lords, a peer suggested without contradiction 50 per cent for cash prizes, 12 per cent on ...

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